How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I could've butchered Miles to get his wife, and then Thursby so I could hang Miles's killing on him. That's a hell of a swell system, or will be when I can give somebody else the bump and hang Thursby's on them. How long am I supposed to keep that up? Are you going to put your hand on my shoulder for all the killings in San Francisco from now on?" (7.118)
Spade is getting pretty fed up with the police's constant questioning. But we can't deny that Spade is a pretty likely suspect for Miles' murder, and Spade has been known to lose his temper in fits of violence.
Quote #5
"Then they attacked me. She struck me first, and then he choked me and took the pistol out of my pocket. I don't know what they would have done next if you hadn't arrived at that moment. I dare say they would have murdered me then and there." (8.19)
In this scene, Cairo claims that Brigid had attacked him, but Brigid swears that Cairo is lying. Here was see how violence is linked to another important theme of the novel: lies and deceit. Spade is unable to parse out the truth from either Cairo or Brigid, but one thing's for certain, violence offers yet another means of self-protection.
Quote #6
Red rage came suddenly into his face and he began to talk in a harsh guttural voice. Holding his maddened face in his hands, glaring at the floor, he cursed Dundy for five minutes without break, cursed him obscenely, blasphemously, repetitiously, in a harsh guttural voice.
Then he took his face out of his hands, looked at the girl, grinned sheepishly, and said: "Childish, huh? I know, but, by God, I do hate being hit without hitting back." (9.3)
Here's a moment when Spade completely loses it and his temper explodes violently in a string of curse words. Spade is furious at Dundy for bullying him, and he's even angrier that he couldn't really fight back without landing himself in jail. The fact that Spade hates "being hit without hitting back" pretty much sums up in a nutshell the general attitude toward violence in the novel. An eye for an eye. And every man out for himself.